


Imaginary Friends

by Nerdgirl001



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016), Dr. Who, Ghostbusters (2016), The X-Files
Genre: Cuties, Drunkenness, Gen, Imaginary Friends, Kid!Scully, Time travelers club, story time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2018-12-11 23:54:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11725212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nerdgirl001/pseuds/Nerdgirl001
Summary: The Doctor





	1. Chapter 1

"Why don't you ever believe?" Mulder asked, his eyes glazed slightly and words slurring. 

Scully stared at him from across the bar table. She was slouched over her beer, eyes either tearing up or wet with alcohol. "What does it matter?" She asked, swinging her arm out and nearly taking out both of their drinks. Mulder just looked at her and she sighed, "because it's illogical" 

He gave her a knowing glance, "you're telling me you never believed?" 

Scully shot him a glare, "You didn't." she accused.

Mulder smiled, "you can't blame me for going to Maggie's. She invited me, they needed another sucker to get money from in poker." 

"You went to my mother's without me?" Scully asked angrily.

"Well I'm sorry Scully, but you were in Illinois all week doing autopsies. I missed you." He said using the same tone she had.

With a dramatic sigh Scully finally gave, "There may have once been a time in which I believed in some of that stuff."

Mulder laughed, "really giving it up aren't you? All I had to do was get a few beers in you and you just spill the beans." 

Scully giggled lightly, "It takes more than just a few beers to get me to spill the beans. These lips," she paused to indicate her lips with a wavering finger, "are sealed." 

"Well Agent Scully, they just gave last call, so either the night ends here, or we can split a bottle of wine in my apartment and talk about these imaginary frien- oww!" Mulder clutched at his shin and looked up at Scully, puppy dog eyes working their magic.

She shook her head, "I barely hit you." Then after a moment's consideration she followed up with, "This may just be the need for some time off, but I'd love a glass of wine."

Mulder smiled and helped Scully up from her seat and, although he wasn't too stable himself, they made it out the front door to wait for a taxi. "So? Do we get to hear about the imaginary friends who captivated you as a child?" 

There was no response. Scully merely leaned on Mulder a little more and waved down the next taxi. He thought that he had blown it until she directed the driver to go to Mulder's apartment. They spent the rest of the ride in a comfortable silence. 

~~~

Within minutes of arriving at Mulder's apartment they were both settling into his couch with glasses of wine. 

"I'll tell you about my imaginary friend if you tell me about yours." Mulder said tantalizingly.

With a smile Scully responded, "Let me guess. His name was Marvin the Martian and he flew around your house in a space ship made of..." Her wit ran out due to the three beers and now half a glass of wine running through her system. 

Mulder raised an eyebrow, "You finished?" 

Scully gave in, "yes." 

"Good. Because you were right. Only I called him Marv and he spent some time with me because his space ship had crashed in my backyard." Mulder said with a wink.

Now it was Scully's turn to raise an eyebrow.

Mulder continued, unfazed, "but let me guess yours now. _She_ was a scientist who invented things that no one could ever believe in because they were too fantastical to be believed." 

Scully looked almost wistful for a moment, "at one point she was." 

Mulder refilled Scully's glass although it was not empty and he sat back to to give her room to share her stories. "What was she at first?" 

Scully began to tell the story of the first time her imaginary friends came into her life.


	2. House Calls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor

"It was December 20th 1970. The Scully household was silent save for the slight murmer of a child silently crying. 

That child, Mulder, was me.

My father had told us that he would be home for Christmas that year, and as a nearly seven year old girl it meant the world to me. However, that day he had called mom saying that the Navy had other plans for him and that he wouldn't be able to make it. I was devastated and angry at him for breaking his promise. That night I decided that I was going to run away and find my way to the Navy base to surprise my dad for Christmas. 

I packed everything I thought I would need into my backpack. Before attempting to crawl out my window, however, I began to write a note to my mom telling her where I had gone, but I couldn't think of a reason good enough to warrant me to leave so I threw my bag onto my bed and began to cry. I knew no one else was up, so when someone lay a hand gently on my shoulder I nearly screamed. But I turned to find this man in a large tweed jacket and a bowtie looking absolutely harmless.

'Hello.' He said to me, 'Can I ask, what's the matter?' I shook my head and ran to my bed away from the strange man, but he gave me a sweet smile and said 'It's okay, Dana. I'm your imaginary friend. I've always been good at imaginary friend, it's the real friend that I have issues with, well not real friend it's more the husband thing...' Then he trailed off and looked me directly in the eye. 'Why are you crying, Dana Scully?'

I told him 'because I miss my dad. And he broke his promise.'

He nodded gravely and came to sit next to me on the bed, he put his arm around me and told me 'Now, most people would tell you that sometimes adults have no choice but to break a promise, and that's true. But instead of telling you that, I'm going to make a promise of my own. I promise to you, Dana, that I will do everything within my power to bring your father home for Christmas.' Then the man stood up, asked me to get into bed, and tucked me in. I fell asleep almost instantly.

My father did make it home for Christmas that year but he never did tell me, or as far as I know anyone, how. 

That man came back to me a few times, he never looked to age a day and he always showed up when I was crying and alone. He wasn't able to fix every problem, but I didn't need him to, he helped me when there was no one else I thought I could go to."

"Wait. Your imaginary friend brought your dad home for Christmas?" Mulder finally cut in from across the couch.

Scully looked up surprised, "well, yes." She sighed, "when I told my mom about him one day she made me go to therapy for months, but that's a different story." 

"First of all, the most my imaginary friend did for me was to make funny faces behind my mom while she was yelling at me. Secondly, why would you need to go to therapy? Lots of kids have imaginary friends." Mulder said, inspecting his second glass of wine. 

Scully shrugged, "not like mine I guess."

"What does that mean?" Mulder asked.


	3. Whatchamacallits and Sparks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holtz

"It was late May 1978. We had been living on Miramar Naval base for about a year. Bill was nineteen and deciding to move out of the house to join the Navy himself. I had talked to him that evening about why he was going, but he was having nothing to do with me. Melissa didn't ever really connect with me, and Charlie was at the stage where I was just another icky girl, so Bill was really my only friend in the family at that time. But he pushed me out of his room at night and told me that there was nothing I could do to stop him from leaving. 

So I went back to my room, heartbroken. It was only about five in the evening, but I was done with the day and just wanted to stay in my room. I lay on my bed for a while listening to the silence of the house. 

Suddenly I heard a pop, when I turned around this woman was standing in the middle of my room looking around, amazed. It took her a while to notice me, but when she did she held out her hand and said, 'Jillian Holtzman, Sagittarius, avid reader, gluten full, and one hundred percent jazzed to meet you.'

So I took her hand and responded, 'Dana Scully, Pisces, avid reader, daughter of a Naval officer, confused to meet you.' 

Jillian looked very excited and sat down on the bed next to me, 'You mean, Dana Scully as in the Dana Katherine Scully?' She asked.

I shrugged, 'I'm the only one I know of' I responded.

She smiled and let out a laugh, then she stared me in the eyes and asked, 'what are you doing Dana Scully?' 

I shrugged and said, 'Being alone.'

She nodded, 'Good to know your heros can get lonely to. Very humanizing. Wanna do something?' 

I nodded and she disappeared for a moment. I thought that maybe it was all some practical joke by Bill for a moment, until with another pop she showed back up with armfuls of equipment. 

I looked at her in amazement and asked, 'where did you get all of that?'

She smiled and said, 'From my workshop. I made it.'

She began plugging in different machines and and running around like a madwoman. After a few clicks and sparks a screen came on. That evening we played this game that she had called 'Holtz Cartz' and as a kid in 1978 who had just gotten pong on one of their first Atari consoles, I was amazed. We were these little characters driving cars around a track. I had never seen anything like it. We played that game all night, no one came to see why I hadn't come to dinner, but I didn't care anymore. 

She showed up a lot that year, one time it ended up that Charlie was at a sleepover with a friend and mom and dad were out at some social event all night so Holtz came back and we made dinner and blared music, we danced around that kitchen and watched movies all night. 

She always showed up when everyone else was gone, when I was completely alone."

"But that's what imaginary friends do, they are there for you when you need someone." Mulder said after a beat of silence, "I still don't see why Maggie thought that you needed therapy."

Scully sighed, "Mom has relaxed a lot since I was a kid. She was always very strict; everything had to be perfect. So having a daughter who had 'Friends' who would come visit her in her head was unacceptable. Plus the fact that I continually argued her that they were real didn't help my cause." 

Mulder thought for a second, "So you really thought that they were real?" 

With a small nod Scully responded, "Yeah. I don't know. They just- how could I have come up with Mario Cart twenty five years before it came out?"

"Four." Mulder corrected.

"What?"

"Twenty-Four years before it came out." 

Scully sighed, but a small smile crept across her lips, "Fine. Twenty-four." 

Mulder smiled, "but that's a fair point. Were there more?"


	4. Smoking and adventure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Capt. Jack Harkness

"It was a few years later, when I started stealing cigarettes from my mom's purse, that a new face started showing up. The first time I nearly jumped from the roof when he appeared. 

He smiled and said, 'Captain Jack Harkness. And you are?' 

I told him, 'If you're on my roof, shouldn't you know?'

He shrugged and leaned back.

'I'm Dana by the way, Dana Scully.' 

He smiled and nodded, 'what are you doing sitting on the roof?'

I sighed, 'Waiting to get punished.' 

He raised an eyebrow at me, 'What do you mean?' Then, after I drew another inhalation of smoke from the cigarette instead of responding, he said 'Ah. And who's going to kill you when they find out?' 

'Dad.' I took a draw again from the cigarette.

He nodded, 'how many in your family?' 

'Four kids, my older brother and sister are already gone, so now it's just me and Charlie, my younger brother.' 

'Is he a handful?' Jack asked, already knowing the answer to that question.

I nodded quietly and looked out to the stars. 'He doesn't try to be. Mom just is too strict with him. Too strict with all of us.' 

'How old are you?' He asked, unexpectedly after a moment of silence.

'Nineteen.'

'Want to go on an adventure?'

I smiled, 'yeah. But tomorrow's a big day. I gotta be home by midnight so I can get some sleep.' 

Jack grabbed my wrist gently and checked my watch, 'five minutes huh? That's enough time.' He winked at me and I blushed.

'What exactly did you have in mind?'"

"Woah, Scully. If this is going to be a sex dream, please go on." Mulder interrupted.

She hit his arm. "Shut up Mulder."

He smiled and rubbed his arm, "Sorry. Go on."

She sighed, "I was going to go with him, but a small voice held me back. Literally.

'Dana' the voice eminated from the open window to my room.

I looked back at Jack, he smiled and nodded.

I crawled back into my room to find Charlie standing there looking upset. I talked to him all night, he was having issues with asking out some girl. They never did end up going out." 

"Did you ever see him again?" Mulder asked quietly.

"Here and there. He showed up after I went through breakups or when my parents were completely preoccupied by their other three children." She responded, staring off into space.

Mulder put a hand on her knee, bringing her back to reality.

She gave him a small smile and continued, "there are two more if you're still interested." 

After some faux consideration he said, "well we've still got a bottle of wine here. So I say we keep going."


	5. Professors and Students

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello sweeties

"It was Februrary 23rd, 1985. That's right, my 21st birthday. I was sitting at my desk alone, writing a paper that was due in a week. I never told my roommate when my birthday was; I knew when hers was, mind you, because she wore a crown for a week, but that's a different story. I hadn't really told anybody. So there I was, Junior year of college, sitting in my room alone on my birthday. Mom had called earlier to wish me a happy birthday, but that was it.

So I decided to punish myself by writing an essay, that no one else has even started yet, about mental illnesses that caused you to hallucinate. I had become pretty absorbed in an article entitled _Imaginary Friends. Helpful or harmful to a developing mind?_ when out of nowhere a voice came from my bed.

'You know, you can't diagnose yourself. That's rule number one, sweetie.' 

I turned to find a woman sitting on my bed, she had blonde hair that just didn't seem to end, and was looking excitedly at me. I responded, 'Technically I'm not a psychologist, so it should be okay.' And turned back to my work.

'You shouldn't do that,' she sounded sure, 'Come out tonight. It's your 21st birthday, right? Unless I got the date wrong.' She trailed off and started fidgeting with her bracelet.

I sighed, 'No, you're right. But I don't want to go to a bar alone.'

She spread her arms wide, 'Why do you think I'm here?'

'But to everyone else I'll be alone.' 

After a look of confusion came over her face the woman sighed, 'Who got the first shift?' When I gave her a blank expression in response she said, 'Who was the first stranger you met?' 

'The man in a bow tie and tweed jacket.' I explained.

She nodded, 'dammit doctor, always screwing it up for the rest of us.' She said under her breath, then to me she said, 'But to you, you won't be alone. And isn't that what matters in the end?' 

After I agreed she put a key on a string around her neck and it became hard to focus on her, she explained that it was to keep the fail safe in place, but I didn't, and still don't, understand what she meant by that. 

We went out to a bar, I had a few free shots, and I realized that I didn't need anyone else to go celebrate. The woman stayed with me all night, it was more fun than I'd had in years. 

That night is pretty fuzzy in my memory, but I seem to remember some drunk guy trying to take me out of the bar and the woman, who pronounced herself as River Song and I believe she added that she was my protector, punched the guy out and helped me out of the bar."

"Now your imaginary friends are punching people out for you? Man, you get all the fun ones." Mulder smiled and winked at her.

Scully shrugged, "I kept checking my fists for bruising the next couple of days, but none showed up. So either I hallucinated the guy, or my imaginary friends have quite the impact on real life.

But she came back to me many times during my college years, convincing me to live a little I guess." 

Mulder smiled, "I like her. I'm not sure how I feel about this Jack Harkness guy, but River Song sounds pretty alright to me." 

Scully smiled and leaned back into the couch a bit more.

"Woah woah woah, you don't get to sleep. You told me there was one more." Mulder said with a smile, holding up the bottle of wine which was down to the last third.


	6. Detectives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dirk

"The last one I only saw once. He called himself Dirk. It wasn't too long after River that I saw him. I was sitting up one night in bed, thinking about my life and where I was heading. I was hating medical school, and feeling lost. 

He appeared absolutely screaming, with a strange machine in tow, I nearly punched him. Once he settled, and stopped screaming, he looked at me with an interested gaze and said, 'Hello. Are you a detective?' 

I stared at him open mouthed for a moment before I was able to gather myself and say, 'N-no. I'm in medical school.'

He sat down next to me and with a very serious expression said, 'Well you don't look like a doctor. You look like a detective. Oh!' He gasped, 'I know who you are! You're why private detectives know what not to look like.'

'Excuse me?' I asked, annoyed, but he was already off on a different topic.

'You're Dana Scully. You work for-' he stopped and looked into my eyes, 'Oh that's no fun, you don't know yet. Fine. Oh!' He jumped up. 'Maybe I'm the one who's supposed to tell you! You're going to become-'

At that exact instant a gust of wind blew the blinds from my window up to hit him in the back of the head. 

He swung around, ready to fight the blinds, then looked really disappointed and sat back down next to me on my bed. 'wrong again Dirk.' He whispered, then he looked at me and asked 'Why are you up so late all alone?'

I didn't know what to say. I looked down at my sheets and wanted to cry. He awkwardly put his hand on my shoulder, 'Look. It's okay.' Then after a second, 'why are you crying?'

I sighed and looked up at him, 'I'm not crying. I'm just upset. I'm nearly done with medical school, but I've completely lost my passion for it. Oh god. My parents are going to kill me.'

He smiled, 'No they won't. Will they be disappointed? Sure. But that's going to happen anyway, they're parents. What could you do that would mean all this work you've done is not in vain, but take your life on a different track- a track it was always meant to go down?' 

I shrugged, 'How am I supposed to answer that?' 

He smiled, 'You're not yet. But something's going to happen. And when it does and you think about this conversation, you'll see that the path you want to take is already laid out before you.' And with that he patted my head, stood up, clung to the machine and began screaming again. Soon he disappeared. 

Later that year I started dating my professor and I thought maybe that was what Dirk had been talking about, until I received a letter from the FBI inviting me to join the academy. 

And the rest is history." 

Mulder smiled, "They all sound insane. But especially that one." 

Scully laughed, "I'll drink to that." She downed the last few sips of her wine.


	7. Coincidence

That night ended, time passed, the drunken debauchery and storytelling was all but forgotten. 

Scully was packing for another probably dead end mission that Mulder had insisted upon going on, wondering what the hell could be so special about one specific rock in one specific place. She decided to read the case file on the plane, because there must be something that she had missed. 

The doorbell rang and she shoved the last pair of socks into her bag and walked to the door. Mulder was supposed to be picking her up in an hour. She opened the door, "Mulder why-" she saw the downtrodden look on her partner's face and stepped aside to let him in, "What's wrong?" 

He slumped down on the couch, "the rock disappeared." 

She put a hand on her hip and looked down at him, "And that's why you showed up at my apartment looking like someone just ran over your puppy?" 

He nodded and sighed, "I think I need a drink, you?" 

She sighed too, "yeah. Let's go." 

They walked down to a pub that was close to Scully's apartment, one that they didn't go to together a lot, but each had found themselves there alone at the end of a few nights. 

The bartender looked up as they walked in together, and smiled to himself that two of his regulars had found each other. "The usual?" He asked as they sat down at the bar, they both have eachother strange looks, then nodded. 

"Come her often?" Scully asked quizically.

Mulder shrugged, "I've got one of those faces." 

Scully raised an eyebrow at him and was about to question him further when someone caught her eye. 

"Scully?" 

"Hmm?"

"What are you looking at?" Mulder smiled at his partner's absorption in whatever it was that stole her attention. When he turned and saw an arguably attractive man at a booth with a group of other people, however, his stomach flipped. " _Scully._ " 

She snapped back to him, "oh. I'm sorry. I just- that- they..." She trailed off and her expression changed to a concerning one.

"What is it?" 

She squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again, "please tell me you see them." 

Mulder was getting worried now, "See who?" 

"That group of five people over there, loudly questioning where they are."

Mulder looked back to the table, "yeah. Why are you- oh. No way. Scully you're not telling that... Let's go say hi! Do you think they'll recognize you? I knew they were aliens!" He stood up and pulled her along to the booth.

"Wait! Mulder- it can't be-" she stopped fighting when all eyes were on her. 

Jack, who was sitting on the edge of the booth was the first to talk, "Hello, Captain Jack Harkness, and you are?" 

Mulder fumbled for a moment, "Uh, me?" 

Jack smiled, "a shy one huh? Well you're the one who came running over here, so..." He looked at Scully and trailed off, realizing why everyone else was being quiet. 

"Uh, no! No, I was just- uh. Scully a little help?" Mulder asked, cheeks turning pink.

In any other situation seeing Mulder this embarrassed would have sent her into a giggling fit, but she was too amazed to say much. All she got out was, "how?" 

River smiled and stood from the other edge of the booth, "Dana! It's so good to see you. And out to a bar with a boy, I'm so proud of you!" She hugged Scully and sat back down, scooting in closer to the doctor beside her, "come you two, sit! Don't worry," she said directly to Mulder who was uncomfortably looking at the seat next to Jack, "he doesn't bite unless you ask him to." 

Jack laughed, "ah, don't worry about it. I see you're taken." He winked at Scully who blushed profusely.

"Uh, guys. Meet my partner at the FBI, Fox Mulder." She said in a small voice.

Dirk, who was sitting between Jack and Holtzman gasped at the word FBI and again at Mulder.

Holtz hit his shoulder, "man, let the woman talk." She smiled up at Scully and rested her chin on the straw from her malt, which looked as though she had gotten it from a different store and brought it in with her, "Go on, Dana." 

Unable to speak, Scully opened and closed her mouth a few times before she got her footing, "How are you all here... And you know, real?" 

The doctor jumped in, "Well Dana, I may have told you a slight lie when you were a kid, but it was only to ensure that you didn't concern your parents with the fact that there was a stranger that magically appeared in your room."

"Shouldn't they have been concerned? Shouldn't I have?" She asked suddenly.

The doctor, a bit taken aback, responded "But we just wanted to be there for you." 

"I- I know. And I don't think I would be the same person today without you guys, but I, I guess I just need to process. Why are you all here?" She said still trying to wrap her head around the fact that they were indeed all there.

Dirk jumped in, "Well thats what we were trying to figure out actually. My time machine malfunctioned and brought me here and- Oh!" He yelled, "Todd! Where'd he go?" He began looking under the table and under drinks.

River, shaking her head, told Scully "His machine thing sent out a distress sig-"

"Oh!" Dirk interrupted again, "I forgot. He said he needed some sleep and time to himself." He used air quotes to signify everything that Todd had apparently said. He then shrugged and took some whipped cream from Holtzman's malt and sucked it off his finger, waiting for River to finish her explanation of events.

River cleared her throat, "signal. Which was picked up by my, and Jack's, vortex manipulators and the Doctor's psychic paper and-" she saw Scully's confused expression and revised, "and you don't know about any of that. Okay time to explain a few things. We all know who you are- or more who you would grow to be, and we know about you, Agent Mulder, and we all just wanted to meet you." Everyone around the table nodded. "And we sort of- got signals whenever you needed one of us. So, we showed up and helped you through using our various methods of time travel." 

Scully looked at Mulder, partly to ensure that he was still there and partly to see his expression given the knowledge they'd just been given. He looked to be taking it surprisingly well. She took a deep breath and let it out, "Okay. So many questions here. For starters, Who sent you the signals? Can you prove to me that you have time travel? And why just me, why didn't you visit Mulder too?" 

The Doctor took the first two questions with a "ooh can I have this one? I love the 'prove it' questions." After everyone nodded, he stood and said, "I sent the signals. I was the first to find you anyway." He gave her a small wink and took off his jacket, he walked into the back room and came back with his bow tie untied and in his hand and gave her a look. 

Scully gasped.

"What?" Mulder asked.

"He- he came up to me at lunch today. Remember? I told you about a strange man who walked up to me, removed his bowtie, said 'proven.' And walked away?" 

Mulder began to laugh, "Oh my god. That's genius." 

"To answer the third question." Holtz started, "We only helped you because you're much more attractive than gangly over there." River kickef her under the table and Holtz stuck out her tongue while winking at Scully.

Jack smiled, "Look this isn't a contest, and if it were then I don't know which would win, but the real reason was that without our" he used air quotes to signify the next word, "guidance Dana probably wouldn't have chosen this path." 

Mulder smiled, "well then I owe you all a huge debt." 

Scully smiled and looked down into her drink. She had never felt so surrounded by the people who cared about her. Her family life was full of pitfalls, you had to be careful who you were around them, but here she was free.


End file.
